


Mothers and Marriages

by Haely_Potter



Series: Bending the Universe [15]
Category: Doctor Who
Genre: F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-09
Updated: 2014-03-09
Packaged: 2018-01-15 03:23:26
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,338
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1289356
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Haely_Potter/pseuds/Haely_Potter
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Doctor," the woman called, "this doesn't look like Rio, again."</p><p>"What, really?" asked a young looking man with a bow tie, poking his head out of the TARDIS, freezing when he saw Jackie. "Oh no."</p>
            </blockquote>





	Mothers and Marriages

Jackie tilted her head as she thought she heard the TARDIS. But Rose hadn't called and they weren't scheduled for a visit in another two weeks. With a frown she hurried down to the courtyard only to the TARDIS materializing right in front of her. Though, it looked bluer than normal. And there was a St. John's Ambulance sticker on the door too.

A young couple, a ginger woman and a brunet man, came out, looking around curiously. "Doctor," the woman called, "this doesn't look like Rio, again."

"What, really?" asked a young looking man with a bow tie, poking his head out of the TARDIS, freezing when he saw Jackie. "Oh no."

"Doctor?" asked Jackie incredulously. "You changed your face again! An' where's Rose?"

The new Doctor opened his mouth but nothing came out and he closed it. Then he opened it again.

"Who's Rose?" asked the ginger with a frown.

The new Doctor glanced at the ginger before looking at Jackie again. "I haven't seen you in over two hundred years, Jackie. Nor have I seen Rose in an equally long time," he said, his voice soft.

"An' you look younger again! Is that what happens? You change your face an' lose twenty years in age? You never did explain that," Jackie continued, ignoring what he'd said. "At least you have meat on your bones now. The other you was skin an' bones, no matter how much I fed you. Now come on, shift, an' bring your friends. I had tea on the stow when I heard the TARDIS. My tea's saved the world once. Himself was useless," she told the couple, leading them back up to her flat. "Had just changed his face an' apparently it went a bit wrong. He slept while we were bein' attacked by these sycorax things. Then he woke up after having some of my tea." She opened the flat door and pointed at a few photos. "That's both of him that I've known. The big eared one was the one we met first. He's the one that Rose ran away with. The one with the big hair's the one she's travelin' with now," she said just as the Doctor closed the door behind him gingerly, looking around with something akin to longing. "Now you," she pointed at him. "Explain."

He shuffled a little, wringing his hands. "I told you, the TARDIS is a time machine. She normally doesn't let me cross my own timeline like this, seeing people who are still in the middle of my past, but for some reason she brought me here. Maybe you're in danger. Has something weird been happening?"

He'd just finished his question when a see through form appeared in the kitchen. "Oh," Jackie said, glancing at the clock. "I forgot dad was visitin' today."

The Doctor stared at the form, having gone pale. "No, not now," he muttered. "Any time but now. I can't be here now!" He tugged on his hair and turned to Jackie. "What's the date? What's the exact date?!"

"May 23rd, 2007," answered the confused Jackie. "What's the matter sweetheart?" she asked, laying a comforting hand on his arm.

"Jackie," the Doctor said urgently, taking Jackie by the shoulders, "I need you to listen to me. When Rose and the past me come back, and you've traveled in the TARDIS and been separated and reunited again, and the past me has taken out 3D-glasses and there is talk of the Void and magna-clamps, you tell the past me to use a harness. Insist on me using a harness. It's going to save Rose's life, you understand. You tell me to use a harness because that will save her life as well as everyone on Earth. Do you understand?"

"After talk of the Void an' 3D-glasses an' magna-clamps, tell you to use a harness," Jackie repeated, nodding, though she obviously had no idea of what she was talking about. Then she grinned. "I get to tell you what to do."

"You're always telling me what to do," smiled the Doctor.

"That's because you've got no common sense, mad, you an' Rose both," nodded Jackie importantly. "An' anyone else who travels with you," she nodded to the couple who sat on the sofa uncomfortably.

The Doctor chuckled. "I've heard that one before. A journalist told me she was going to report me and a friend of mine for madness."

Jackie looked at him. "Was that before or after Rose?"

"Two years after. There had been one in between Rose and Donna, Martha, she fancied me but… well… after Rose, I just… couldn't. Donna was like a sister. But Rose…"

"I know sweetheart," Jackie said. "I see how you look at her. I see how you looked around here, right now. Like comin' home. After a horrible day. Tell me Doctor, what made your eyes so cold again?"

"Losing Rose," was the simple answer.

"I'll make sure you an' Rose use a harness then," Jackie said softly. "I don't want you to be alone any more than Rose does, not after how you sent Rose back to me when it seemed impossible to survive. Yes, she went back to you, but… you did the right thing… an', well, I knew there was no gettin' rid of you after those slikeen-things 'cause she was infatuated."

"But she was still with Mickey?" the Doctor said, tilting his head.

"Didn't mean much, now did it? She ran off with you an' then, when Mickey went with you, he stayed in that parallel world. An' you, you were jealous of him from the beginnin'. With how you wound him up an' didn't like Rose comin' home… you wanted her all to yourself."

"Yes, yes I did. And I never got to tell her that. Tried once, but ran out of time."

"Some Time Lord you are," scoffed Jackie and went to make the tea. The ghosts had faded again. Midday shifts only lasted a few minutes... "Ran out of time, he says. Yeah right, more like he was afraid to say it an' then she died. Honestly, men. No matter he's a bloody alien."

She eavesdropped on the Doctor's conversation with the couple, whose names, she learned, were Amy and Rory. The woman, Amy, wanted to know who she was and how did the Doctor know her? The man, Rory, was more interested in the instructions he'd given her. What would it mean to them if the Doctor's past was altered to include Rose again? She admitted she didn't understand a word of his explanation (something about frayed timelines and fissures and unbalance...) but his friends seemed to relax as he went on.

Until he said "And this way I don't have to marry River!"

"You're  _married_!?" screeched Jackie, dropping the teapot lid she'd been holding and storming to the living room.

At the same time Amy shouted "What do you mean, "don't have to marry River!" That's my daughter you're talking about!"

Jackie laid a hard one on his cheek. Her hand throbbed but she ignored it as she had more important things to worry about right now. Like her daughter's heart. "You," continued Jackie, ignoring her younger guests, pointing at the Doctor, "Mr. I-won't-come-to-bloody-tea-'cause-I-don't-do-domestic, are married?"

The Doctor had stumbled backwards away from her, holding his cheek, and now held up his hands in a defensive manner. "I had to marry her for her to trust me in a timeline that never was!"

"You never had to marry Rose for her to trust you," grumbled Jackie, "an' she'd been infatuated with you since the beginnin'!"

"Rose also knew I wasn't infallible," defended the Doctor. "She had to save me the first time we met! Humiliating that, being saved by a nineteen-year-old teenage girl. River on the other hand had had propaganda fed to her since her infancy."

"Oh, that's so much better," Jackie scoffed. "What kinda garbage was it then? That they fed her that you had to marry her for her to trust you?"

"I haven't got a clue," shrugged the Doctor. "It may have had something to do with the fact that they tried to get her to kill me in a fixed point in time and River resisted it, changed it, and that's something you should never, ever do. The only way to fix it was for her to kill me, but she wouldn't if she didn't trust me. Biggest show of trust for you humans is marriage."

"An' you didn't trust Rose?" demanded Jackie indignantly. "After she went back to you when you sent her away?!"

"No, no, no, you don't understand," the Doctor said quickly. "I don't just trust Rose, I believe in her too, like you probably believe in the Sun rising each morning."

That calmed Jackie down a little, but she was still slightly miffed. She crossed her arms over her chest and scowled at him. "Fine, I'll believe you for now. But I reserve the rights to slap you if you so much as make Rose cry again." She withdrew to the kitchen to finish the tea, still eavesdropping shamelessly.

"Raggedy man," Amy growled. "What was that?"

"I thought I was actually being rather clear, Pond," said the Doctor and Jackie heard him sit down in his favorite chair. "It's not that I don't love River, I do, truly, but Time Lords... As a society we were rather sociopathic, according to human standards anyway. From a young age we were taught that emotional ties were a weakness of the lower species and to control our emotions. Most of us became sociopaths that followed the rules. Some became sociopaths that... well, became mass murderers. And some, not many, but some, retained the ability to grow fond of and love things. I'm one of those, as you can probably guess. But the way I was brought up... it made it hard. Before our society became sociopathic, we mated for life and remained loyal to the end. Our feelings were made to endure the test of time, so to speak. Once I became fond of something or someone, I would always be fond of them. But I didn't fall in love for a long time. Not until after the Time War. Not until I met a pink and yellow human girl. Took me two days to fall in love. Best two years of my life I had her with me. Then came Torchwood and the war and I lost her. I hadn't had time to properly bond with her. Was actually going to ask Jackie for her permission to court her on our last visit here but that never happened. But as I said before, our feelings are made to endure the test of time. It's been over two hundred years and my feelings haven't even begun to fade. Now River... Time Lords married for many reasons. Political, financial... saving the universe. But never for love. Love might have developed between partners, and they might even have been in love when they married, but that's not how you chose your partner. For someone who was in love but had lost their partner, their other half... any reason was good enough to get married, since you couldn't get the one you loved."

Jackie had listened carefully to what the Doctor explained to his friends. He really was alien. Talking about his people... a people that didn't marry for love... But... was that so different from arranged marriages a few centuries ago on Earth? Maybe not, but still... The very thought sent chills up Jackie's spine. She never could imagine marrying anyone but Pete.

With that, she finally brought the tea to the living room.

'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'

The future Doctor's visit played over and over in Jackie's mind when she waited for magna-clamps and 3D-glasses and the Void. He had left her instructions on how to start an impromptu wedding ceremony, what words to use to initiate it and what to say when giving away the bride.

When Pete (Pete! Her Pete! Pete who wasn't dead!) said that they should go to the parallel world to safety, all of them, Rose included, Jackie watched as Rose walked backwards towards the Doctor and locked eyes with him.

"Doctor," she said, her throat tight. "Will you take care of her? Will you take care of my little girl?"

The Doctor's eyes flew to her, wide and disbelieving. "Do you mean that, Jackie?" he asked faintly, ripping his tie off. He held one end to Rose. "Wrap that around your right hand."

Without question she did as she was told, but her eyes were full of questions.

"I consent and gladly give," Jackie said tearfully. There was a silence and Jackie elbowed Pete who gave her a surprised glance. "Say it," she hissed. "I'm here for my daughter's weddin', and I'm havin' her married before goin' anywhere!"

Bewildered, Pete glanced at her before looking back at Rose and the Doctor, who was looking at him impatiently. "I... I-I consent and... gladly give...?" His tone was hesitant and it came out more as a question, but it was good enough for Jackie and the Doctor.

The Doctor turned to Rose and whispered something to her ear. Jackie saw her eyes widen and she drew back with a brilliant smile on her face.

"Now you two, use a harness or a rope or somethin' to secure yourselves," she told them and put the disc around her neck. "An' remember, I want grand babies, even if they're half martians an' I'll never see them, I still want them. An' name one after me, will ya?" Her eyes found Rose's "I love you," she managed to say before the queerest feeling came over her and her surroundings shifted. There was no Rose or Doctor in front of her anymore.

"You okay?" asked Mickey beside her. "Do you think she'll be okay?"

"Yeah," answered Jackie, turning to look at him. "I'm fine, an' Rose... she'll be, shall we say,  _fantastic_."


End file.
